Barka, Barka, Barka?

     Well....it's official. I am now a United States Peace Corps VOLUNTEER! The swear in ceremony was held at the ambassadors beautiful house in Ouaga. The ambassador, the Peace Corps Director, several current volunteers, past volunteers, media, and notable Burkinabe were all present. There was an awesome local baand who played in the beginning and started the ceremony off with the Burkina national anthem. Following their anthem, two current Peace Corps volunteers played our national anthem.  The best part of the whole ceremony however, was that my host dad, one of my host mom's and my host brother all came from my old village!  A bunch of the families in Sanga got together and rented a bus.  They travelled 3 hours and spent a lot of money just to be able to attend!  Our village had the most people attend the ceremony out of the three villages where we stayed during training!  It was so nice and surprising to see their support.     One really funny part of the ceremony was when the ambassador asked the current and past volunteers to stand up and be recognized.  Since he said it in English, none of the villagers understood.  Since they say people in front of them standing, they stood up as well.  It was really funny to see them do that and made me realize that that is what we as foreigners look like half the time when we are attending local events in village. Below are three photos from the event:


The 26 new Peace Corps Volunteers!

My host mom and I at the ceremony!

The band from the ceremony!

     On Saturday morning, after a night of celebrating our new Peace Corps titles, we packed up a Peace Corps car with all of my bags, and the bags of two otehr volunteers in my area, and headed southeast to my village.  Upon arriving, I was greeted by some members of the COGES.  These are members of the community who were elected to help with things at the health clinic.  The head nurse, called a Major, couldn't come say hellow because he was delivering a baby!  We unloaded the car and checked out the house.  My house has three rooms, and the volunteer before me, Anna, left SO much stuff for me.  It's AWESOME!  I even have a double bed.  I also have several lizard friends who seem to live here. 

My new home!

     Later the Major came over to say hello, followed by some girls who brought me a huge bowl of spaghetti and chicken as a welcome gift.  After lunch my Major told me that the local market, which happens every three days, was going on.  We decided to go walk around, browse the food, and meet some people.  Komtoega is really big!  Much bigger than Sanga.   There are a little over 5,000 people who live here and the village has small shops and stores and a bar.  My Major introduced me to a lot of people and explained that I was replacing the other volunteer, Anna.  They kept saying things to me in local language so I was pretty confused and just kept saying barka, which is local lang for thanks.  It seems like everyone knew and loved Anna, so hopefully I can make as good of an impression as she did.  First goal, master French and the local language called Bissa. 

Inside one room of my house...not bad right!?

     After the market the Major and I went and got a beer at the small bar/dance area.  Later, we headed back to the clinic grounds. Five families, all functionare families, live on the clinic grounds with me.  Functionares means they work for the government and are wealthier than villagers.  The Major's house has electricity which is nice because I can charge my stuff there.  He even has a tv and found an English news channel for us to watch.  Since many functionares have tv's they have seen the news about Conneticut and have asked me questions about it.  I try to explain what happened but then again, how do you really explain it? 
     Today I went to the clinic to meet up with the Major.  He was going to show me around and introduce me to the Mayor and other staff at the City Hall.  The introductions were pretty awkward because my French is horrible but I managed to get by.  In the afternoon I walked around the village and met a group of women doing hair and selling fruit.  I brought over a notebook and asked if they could help me translate some easy French words and sayings  into my village's local language, Bissa.  It was really fun and nice to start learning some Bissa since everyone comes up and talks to me and I never know how to respond.  One of the women sitting with us however was younger and not from the village.  She married a man from this village who now lives as a migrant worker in Italy.  Since she wasn't born in this village, she also doesn't know Bissa.  We decided we would learn together and I got her phone number and plan to go back to the "meeting spot" tomorrow for lesson numero 2!  I'm still really sad that I am not living with a host family, like I originally thought I was going to, however meeting villagers like today definitely helps!!
     I'm still trying to finalize my plans for Christmas and New Years.  We are not allowed to leave village for a long period of time during the first three months in village, so I have to pick one of the holidays to meet up with other volunteers.  I was also invited to a wedding in a big city in the southwest, called Bobo.  One of the staff members of Peace Corps, a local, invited the volunteers to her son's wedding.  If other volunteers decide to go, I might have to make the long trip to the southwest.  I'll keep everyone posted on what I do!  Stay safe!  N 


One Day Till Go Time

     I can't believe it, but after tomorrow I am officially a volunteer. About 250 people are invited to come to the embassy for our swearing in ceremony. After the ceremony we have a big lunch at our Country Directors house and then we plan to go out with some current volunteers. I'm really anxious to swear in and start my two years in my new village.  In my last post I mentioned my village, Komtoega, and what my housing setup would be. Unfortunately, a little of that has changed. The original house they were giving me is now not available. Instead, I'm going to be living in a house located on the grounds of the clinic. Also, the house doesn't have electricity.  Kind of a bummer but I guess now I'm living the true Peace Corps experience.
     Last week I went to Ouaga for the counterpart workshop. I got to meet the head nurse, my main contact person, and we had sessions to get to know each other, learn how to work together, and plan out the first three months in village. He seemed really motivated, patient and cool and I'm exited to start working.After the workshop we returned to village for our last few days. I was happy to come back to village. It really made me realize how much I'll miss my host family. Everyday they kept asking if I would ever come back to visit. It was hard to explain to them why I am leaving the village but not leaving the country. I definitely plan on coming back to visit though!  Below is a picture of my counterpart!

     Also last week we had committee elections. There are 7 committees within Peace Corps Burkina and they each work and organize different projects. The group I was most interested in was the Youth Development Committee. One of the main projects this committee organizes is something called Camp Glow. This committee organizes camps around the country that focus on women equality. The goal is to work with male youth to stress the importance of women as equals. Both girls and boys attend and they also focus on promoting healthy lifestyles and youth empowerment. A lot of people wanted to be on this committee so we each gave a short speech and then voted. I was lucky enough to win! This means I will get to head into the capital city about every two months to meet with the committee and help organize Camp Glow!
     The last couple days in village were really sad. I spent time with my family and gave them their gift. Burkinabé love getting their pictures taken so during my two months in Sanga I took a ton of pictures. For their gift I printed the photos out and made them an album. They had never seen picture of themselves before and they really loved the gift. That night I decided to show them Human Planet, which is a BBC show similar to Planet Earth. I showed them an episode on oceans. About 20 people gathered around my computer and they were all shocked! Most of them have never seen the ocean before so seeing whales and dolphins amazed them. They talked during the whole episode and looked stunned the entire time!
     On Monday the village had a goodbye ceremony in the afternoon. They got a guitarist and cooked a ton of food. All the kids came to the ceremony during their school break and a lot of the men and women showed up to say goodbye. The Peace Corps presented them with a certificate of appreciation and an invitation to our swearing in ceremony. Each volunteer went up to shake our host dad's hand and snap a photo with the certificate. When it was my turn to go my host dad put his hand over my shoulder for the picture and the whole audience was laughing and cheering. One of my PC friends even started crying. In Burkina nobody shows affection. I have never seen people hug or men and women hold hands. It was really sweet and shocking that my host dad did that and luckily someone snapped a photo of it!

     Then they brought us a ton of food and we all ate and listened to music. At the end I went around to say goodbye to the women, who were standing up around the men who all had chairs. I made sure to say goodbye and thank you to all of my host moms. When I got to my last host mom, the one that cooked all my meals, she said thank you in Nuni and then started to cry. The ceremony had been so sad and I had been trying really hard not to cry but when I saw my host mom crying I lost it! It was really embarrassing for me because they think crying is really awkward and hardly ever cry! I really hope I like my new village as much as Sanga.  I definitely plan to go  back and visit a few times.  After the ceremony we headed to Ouaga, which is where I am now. Next time I write I'll be a volunteer in my new village! Happy Holidays! N